Apparatus and method for assembling electronic circuits

ABSTRACT

A device for assembling electronic circuits comprises a placing station for placing circuit components on a circuit carrier held at a placing location, a fixing station for fixing the circuit carrier under the effect of heat, and a belt conveyor for conveying a circuit carrier from the placing location to a take-over location of the fixing station. The fixing station comprises a heatable zone and a manipulator for raising the circuit carrier from the take-over location and placing it in the heatable zone. A continuous belt conveyor extends from the placing location up to the take-over location.

The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for automatedassembly of electronic circuits.

Usually, for this purpose, program controlled placing devices are usedwhich are capable of taking a circuit component from a stack andinserting it at a given position of a circuit board. When the placingprocess is finished, the circuit board is heated together with thecomponents placed on it in order to melt solder and to bring the circuitcomponents into contact with conductors of the circuit board.

The process steps of placing and heating are carried out by differentdevices which, for a completely automated operation, must compriseinternal conveyor means which receive a circuit board to be processed atan input of the device, and convey it to a processing location where thecircuit board is packed with the components or the components aresoldered, respectively, and further to an output of the device. Theseinternal conveying means are often formed with conveyor belts. At atransition from one device to another, these conveyor belts aregenerally butt jointed, so that a circuit board which is delivered by aconveyor belt of the placing device may slide across the joint onto theconveyor belt of the soldering device and may be further transported byit. Lateral guide rails ensure that the circuit board arrives on theconveyor belt of the soldering device exactly in a correct orientation.

Such a device set-up provides satisfactory results when circuits havingworking frequencies in the MHz range are assembled. For assembling radiofrequency circuits with working frequencies in the GHz range, they haveproved unsatisfactory. The reason for this is that, in radio frequencycircuits, a much higher positional accuracy is required for theindividual circuit components. There are placing devices available whichare capable of placing the individual circuit components with therequired accuracy onto a circuit board; however, after soldering it isoften found that the circuit components are no longer at the intendedlocations with the required accuracy. An undesirable scatter in thetechnical properties of the circuit or even circuit failures may result.

The object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus forassembling electronic circuits which is suitable for manufacturingelectronic circuits with well reproducible technical properties, inparticular for assembling circuit components on a board with apositioning accuracy in a range of +50 mm, as required for radiofrequency circuits.

The object is achieved by an apparatus having the features of claim 1.

The inventors have found that in current assembling devices an essentialreason for the deviations of the soldered circuit components from theirintended position is the hand-over of the circuit board from theconveyor means of the placing device to those of the soldering device.If the conveyor means of these two devices are not exactly parallel,there is an abrupt change of direction at the hand-over of the circuitboard which may cause the circuit components to slip. The same appliesif the planes in which the conveyor means support the circuit boardshave slightly different heights or are not exactly parallel. Also, smalldifferences in the conveying speeds may cause abrupt movements of thecircuit board during hand-over.

All these problems are avoided in the apparatus of claim 1 by departingfrom the conventional conception of automatic devices workingautonomously and conveying from the input to the output, and by using,instead, a continuous conveyor belt which bridges the output of theplacing device by extending directly from a placing location totake-over location within the fixing device, where a circuit boardconveyed on the conveyor belt is taken over by a manipulator in order toplace it in a heatable zone of the soldering device.

In order to provide a shock-free transition of a circuit board withcomponents placed on it, it is desirable that each circuit board comesto rest at an exactly reproducible position of the conveyor belt. Forthis purpose, preferably, a first sensor for detecting a passage of acircuit board is located at the conveyor belt, and a control deviceconnected to this sensor brakes the conveyor belt with a predefinedvelocity profile after detection of the passage of a circuit board, inorder to bring the circuit board to rest at a predefined location.

A second sensor is advantageously located at the conveyor belt at thelocation where the circuit board should come to rest; it allows for apost-correction of the speed profile in order to compensate inaccuraciesof speed control.

According to the first embodiment of the invention, fixing of thecircuit components on the circuit board is carried out by soldering. Asolder oven employed for this purpose should preferably be evacuable inorder to prevent the formation of cavities in the solder layer whichmight impair the behaviour of radio frequency components.

For reproducible soldering of good quality, it is important that in eachsolder process the temperature distribution in the solder oven isreproduced as accurately as possible. This may be difficult if thenumber of circuit boards to be soldered in one solder process varies. Inorder to achieve a reproducible solder process under thesecircumstances, too, a parking area for a dummy circuit board ispreferably provided in the movement range of the manipulator so that themanipulator may fill the solder oven with the dummy if not all placespresent in it are occupied by circuit boards.

Another possibility of fixing circuit components on the board is to usea heat-sealing film placed between the board and the circuit components.In order to fix the circuit components on the board using such a film,only a heatable plate is required on which the circuit board having thecomponents placed on it may be put by the manipulator.

In order to protect the highly accurate and susceptible placing stationfrom heat and, possibly, vapours from the solder oven, the placingstation is preferably enclosed in a casing having an opening throughwhich the conveyor belt emerges.

If a continuous conveyor belt extends from a pick-up location at theinput of the placing station to its output or, as described above, to atake-over location, where a circuit board may be taken over by themanipulator of the fixing station, there is a problem in that a newcircuit board without components may not straightforwardly be loadedonto the conveyor belt at the pick-up location as long as a circuitboard with components placed on it is still on the conveyor belt. Anyvibration during loading might cause a displacement of components on thecircuit board equipped with them. Since the circuit board must beconveyed very slowly and carefully between the placing location and thetake-over location or, at least, may only be accelerated and braked veryslowly, this transport takes considerable time which increases the cycletime of the apparatus. In order to make this cycle time as short aspossible, it is proposed to split the conveyor means into two conveyorbelts, a first one extending between the pick-up location for theunequipped circuit board and a hand-over location upstream of theplacing location and a second conveyor belt extending from the hand-overlocation via the placing location to the take-over location. Due to thisdivision, it is possible to convey a new, unequipped circuit-board tothe hand-over location—which should appropriately be in close proximityto the placing location—before the completely equipped circuit board hasreached the take-over location where it is taken over by themanipulator. As soon as it is taken over, the new circuit board only hasto be conveyed over a minimum distance on the second conveyor belt tothe placing location.

In order to be able to place the circuit components with high accuracy,it is desirable that during the placing procedure the circuit board isnot supported by the conveyor means, which might be compliant. For thispurpose, preferably an elevating table is provided at the placinglocation for lifting the circuit board off the conveyor means.

In order to provide a reproducible up and down movement of the elevatingtable, it is linearly guided by rails. It is difficult to provideabsolute parallelism between these rails and the movement of an actuatorthat drives the up and down movement of the elevating table. In order toprevent abrupt movements from being caused by deviations fromparallelism when the elevating table reaches its abutments, a clearanceis provided in the connection of the actuator to the elevating table.

The actuator for raising and lowering the elevating table is preferablydriven by a pressurized fluid, i.e. hydraulically or pneumatically. Thefree cross-section of an exhaust line by which pressure fluid isexhausted from the actuator when lowering the elevating table is smallerthan the free cross-section of a feed line by which pressurized fluid isfed into the actutator when raising the elevating table. This measureallows for a reduction of the descending speed of the actuator withoutrequiring sophisticated controls, so that while the circuit boardequipped with circuit components is being deposited on the conveyorbelt, absolutely no vibrations can occur.

Preferably, the cross-section of the exhaust line is reduced onlylocally by a throttle. The free cross-section of this throttle should beadjustable, so that the speed of the downward movement can be adapted tocurrent requirements by adjusting the cross-section.

Further features and advantages of the invention become apparent fromthe subsequent description of embodiments referring to the appendeddrawings.

FIG. 1 is a schematic top view of a device for assembling electroniccircuits according to the invention;

FIG. 2 is a detailed view of the take-over location of the device ofFIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the take-over location;

FIG. 4 is a schematic section of the placing location of the device ofFIG. 1; and

FIG. 5 is a schematic representation of the pneumatic layout of theplacing location.

The assembling device of FIG. 1 is transited by the circuit board 1 tobe equipped from left to right. The first apparatus of the device is amagazine loader, which, being known as such, is not represented indetail in the drawing. Such a magazine loader comprises a rack whichreceives a plurality of circuit carriers and is adjustable in height, sothat the circuit carriers 1 may successively be placed in front of aslider 2 which pushes them onto a first belt conveyor 3.

The circuit carriers 1 are here formed of a carrier board 4 of metalhaving a width selected such that it fits with little clearance onto thebelt conveyor 3 and which is slightly tapered at its front end in orderto ensure that the carrier board can safely be pushed onto the firstbelt conveyor 3 without risk of tilting. A metal casing 6 in whichcircuit components are to placed is fixed to the carrier board 4 byseveral screwed pads 5. Alternatively, the circuit carrier might beformed only of such a casing if it has appropriate dimensions for safetransport on the belt conveyor 3.

The first belt conveyor 3 is part of a computer controlled placingapparatus 7. The placing apparatus 7 comprises a table top 8 on whichthe first belt conveyor 3, a subsequent second belt conveyor 9 andmagazine containers 10 for the circuit components to be placed in thecasing 6 of circuit carrier 1 are located. Above the table top 8, agripper arm 13 is mounted to a granite board (not shown) displaceably invertical and, by means of rails 11, 12, in two horizontal directions.The two belt conveyors 3, 9 are essentially similar in construction.Both comprise a base plate 14 around which two conveyor belts 15 arewound and are driven by a motor. The base plate is delimited at itslongitudinal sides by side plates 16 that define a transport path forthe circuit carrier 1 and that are slightly divergent at their upstreamend in order to provide a safe transition of the circuit carriers 1.

The second belt conveyor 9 differs from the first 3 essentially in thatin its upstream portion an elevating table 17 is inserted into the baseplate 14, and that its length is considerably greater than that of thefirst belt conveyor 3, so that it extends out of the casing 18 of theplacing device and into a subsequent soldering device 19. The section ofthe second belt conveyor extending into the soldering device willsubsequently be further described with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3.

The soldering device 19 comprises, mounted to a table top 20, amanipulator formed by a highly precise and vibration-free robot arm 21,an evacuable solder oven 22, a support 23 for a circuit carrier dummyand a cooling-off plate 24 formed by a metal plate having cooling waterducts arranged inside it and a slider for pushing a circuit carriercooled-off on the cooling plate 24 out of the soldering device 19 to afurther belt conveyor 26.

The operation of the illustrated device is as follows. At the pickuplocation 27, at the beginning of the first belt conveyor 3, a circuitcarrier 1 is pushed onto the first belt conveyor 3 using slider 2. Thefirst belt conveyor 3 conveys the circuit carrier 1 to a hand-overlocation 28 for hand-over to the second belt conveyor 9. At thishand-over location 28, the two belt conveyors 3, 9 are butt-jointed, andthe occurrence of vibrations during hand-over of the circuit carrier 1cannot be completely avoided, but is harmless since there are no circuitcomponents placed on it yet.

The second belt conveyor 9 has conveyor belts 15 which, at that time,circulate with essentially the same speed as the conveyor belts 15 ofthe first belt conveyor 3. They convey the circuit carrier 1 further andcome to rest at a placing location 29, at which the circuit carrier isimmediately above the elevating table 17. By raising the elevating table17, the circuit carrier 1 looses contact with the conveyor belts 15 and,instead, has its planar bottom side stably resting on the elevatingtable 17. In this way, it is made sure that during the placingprocedure, the circuit carrier 1 cannot be displaced by pressureexercised by gripper arm 13, so that the complete placing procedure canbe carried out at a high accuracy.

During the placing process, there is no further circuit carrier 1 on thesecond belt conveyor 9; however, a further circuit carrier from themagazine loader may have already arrived on the first belt conveyor 3.

When the placing procedure is finished, the elevating table 17 isdescended again, so that the circuit carrier 1 located on it is againdeposited on the conveyor belts 15 of second belt conveyor 9 carefullyand without vibrations.

From this position, the circuit carrier 1 equipped with the circuitcomponents is further conveyed by the second belt conveyor 9, theacceleration of the circuit carrier being selected low enough to preventvibrations and slipping of the placed circuit components.

Before reaching a take-over location 29 at the end of the second beltconveyor 9, a gentle deceleration of the circuit carrier 1 begins. Forthis purpose, as can be seen in the top view of FIG. 2, a first sensor30, e.g. a photo detector, is inserted into the base plate 14 of thesecond belt conveyor 9 in order to detect the passage of the leadingedge of a circuit carrier 1 at a distance from its intended restposition at the take-over location 29, which is sufficient to bring thecircuit carrier to rest without causing vibrations. As soon as thepassage of the circuit carrier is detected at the first sensor 30, it ise.g. begun to brake the belt conveyor 9 with a constant deceleration,which is selected such that, provided that the control is free fromtolerances and errors, the circuit carrier will come to rest exactly atthe take-over location, as indicated by a dashed outline of the leadingedge of the circuit carrier in FIG. 2.

In order to bring the circuit carrier 1 to rest exactly at thispredefined position 29, the second belt conveyor 9 is preferably furtherequipped with a second sensor 31 that extends over approximately 1 to 2mm in transport direction and provides an output signal proportional toits degree of coverage by the circuit carrier. Based on this outputsignal, a control (not shown) of the belt conveyor 9 is capable ofdetecting whether the circuit carrier reaches the second sensor 31before or after an expected instant, and whether, in consequence, thebraking procedure must be shortened or prolonged in order to reach thedesired target position 29.

FIG. 3 shows a perspective view of the second belt conveyor 9 having acircuit carrier 1 placed at the takeover location, and, above, an endeffector 32 of robot arm 21. The end effector 32 comprises two claws 33that are moveable transversely to the transport direction in thedirection of arrow P, each having two downward projecting fingers 34,that have inwardly directed tips 35 at the ends. In the side wings 16 ofthe second belt conveyor 9, two cutouts 36 adapted to the size anddistance of the fingers 34 are formed, which allow the tips 35 to engagelongitudinal recesses 37 at the bottom of carrier plate 4 of the circuitcarrier 1 and thus, to lift it safely.

The robot arm 21 afterwards places the circuit carrier in the solderoven 22. The oven shown has two locations for circuit carriers, butmight also be larger or smaller. FIG. 1 shows the solder oven 22 with anopen lid 38, a circuit carrier 1 placed inside the oven 22 and a dummycircuit carrier 39 placed next to it. This dummy 39 is placed in theoven 22 if a solder process is to be carried out on a single circuitcarrier 1. Its thermal properties are practically the same as of anequipped circuit carrier, so that the temperature distribution in thesolder oven 22 is the same in each solder process, regardless of howmany locations of the solder oven are occupied by circuit carriers or bydummies.

After loading the solder oven 22, the lid 38 is closed; the solderprocess is carried out in a conventional manner under vacuum.

When the solder process is finished, the lid 38 is opened, and the robotarm 21 extracts the soldered circuit carrier or carriers and places themon the water cooled cooling plate 24. After cooling off, the slider 25is operated, and the soldered and cooled circuit carriers 1 are pushedout onto the belt carrier 26.

FIG. 4 shows a schematic longitudinal section through the placinglocation and the elevating table 17. The elevating table 17 is a solidmetal plate having two through bores in which cylindrical columns 41 arefixedly inserted. The columns 41 are exactly parallel to each other andextend with minimum clearance through bores 42 of table top 8. Theelevating table 17 is vertically displaceable by means of a pneumaticactuator 43 having a double acting piston and a piston rod 45. Switchingvalves 44 that control ingress and egress of air into/from the twochambers of actuator 43 are located on the table top 8 at a minimumdistance from actuator 43, in order to minimize pressure vibrations inthe chambers which might provoke an uneven movement of the elevatingtable 17.

Since the columns 41 must be guided with minimum clearance in the bores42, a horizontal component of the acting force of actuator 43 may causethe elevating table 17 to jam during up and down movement if the pistonrod 45 is not exactly parallel to the columns 41. This must be avoided.For this purpose, the head of the piston rod 45 is received with aclearance in a recess of plate 17. In the Figure this head is shown as asphere engaging a similarly spherical recess; the required clearance mayalso simply be achieved by a threaded head of the piston rod 45 engaginga threaded bore of elevating table 17 without being fastened to it.

The range of movement of the elevating table 17 is limited in upwarddirection by projections (here formed by rings 46) at the lower ends ofcolumns 41, which, in a completely raised position of the elevatingtable 17 abut against the bottom side of table top 8. This constructionallows to fix the elevating table 17 in the raised position shown in theFigure without having to squeeze any parts, by merely providing pressurein one of the chambers of actuator 43. This pressure is selected suchthat a pressing force exerted from above by the gripper arm 13 whenplacing a circuit component is not sufficient to override the supportingforce of the piston rod 45.

FIG. 5 schematically shows the pneumatic layout of the placing locationaccording to a preferred embodiment. The switching valves are herecombined into a single valve 44′ having two inputs, two outputs andthree switching positions. In a first switching position, the valve 44′connects a pressure fluid source, e.g. a compressor, to a lower chamber51 of the cylinder of the double-acting actuator 43 by a feed line 49. Acheck valve 53 in the feed line 49 ensures that pressurized air can onlyflow through the feed line 49 in a direction from the valve 44′ to thelower chamber 51.

Air entering the lower chamber 51 urges the piston of the cylinderupward, so that the elevating table 17 mounted to the piston rod 45 israised. Air from the upper chamber 52 is exhausted by a line 45 thatgoes through valve 44′.

When the elevating table 17 has reached a desired level, the valve 44′is switched over into a second position in which the connections betweenits inputs and outputs are all interrupted. The air thus enclosed in thechambers 51, 52 of the actuator 43 opposes any vertical displacement ofthe elevating table 17. In such a raised state, a circuit carrier on theelevating table 17 may have circuit components placed on it.

When after placing the circuit components the elevating table 17 is tobe descended again, the valve 44′ is switched to a third position inwhich the inputs and outputs are cross-coupled with respect to the firstswitching position. Thus, now the upper chamber 52 is provided withpressurized air from compressor 47 by line 54, and air from the lowerchamber 51 escapes by an exhaust line 50 by-passing feed line 49. Theexhaust line 50 has a check valve 55 arranged opposite to the checkvalve 53, and a throttle 48 having a controllable free cross-section.The throttle 48 considerably reduces the free cross-section of theexhaust line 50 in comparison with the feed line 49 and the line 53. Thethrottle 48 thus causes the air to escape from the lower chamber 51during the downward movement of the piston much more slowly than fromthe upper chamber 52 in case of an upward movement. In a simple way,this arrangement allows a fast upward movement of the circuit carrier 1which is desirable in view of short cycle times, and a slow downwardmovement which is required in order to avoid vibrations when the circuitcarrier settles on the belt conveyor 9. The speed of the downwardmovement can be set by controlling the cross-section of throttle 48.

As an alternative to the design shown in FIG. 5, one-way feed and outputlines might also be assigned to the upper chamber 52. In that case, athrottle for braking the downward movement would have to be placed inthe feed line.

1-15. (canceled)
 16. A device for assembling electronic circuits,comprising: a placing station for placing circuit components on acircuit carrier held at a placing location; a fixing station for fixingthe circuit components to the circuit carrier under heat; and a beltconveyor means for conveying the circuit carrier from the placinglocation to a take-over location of the fixing station, the fixingstation including a heatable zone and a manipulator for lifting thecircuit carrier off the take-over location and placing it in theheatable zone, and the belt conveyor means including a continuous beltconveyor extending from the placing location to the take-over location.17. The device for assembling electronic circuits according to claim 16,and a first sensor for detecting the conveying of the circuit carrierarranged at the belt conveyor, and a control means connected to thefirst sensor for braking the belt conveyor after detection of theconveying of the circuit carrier by the first sensor.
 18. The device forassembling electronic circuits according to claim 17, and a secondsensor for detecting the circuit carrier placed at the belt conveyordownstream of the first sensor, and the control means being operativefor bringing the belt conveyor to rest at the moment when the circuitcarrier is detected by the second sensor.
 19. The device for assemblingelectronic circuits according to claim 16, wherein the heatable zone isa solder oven.
 20. The device for assembling electronic circuitsaccording to claim 19, wherein the solder oven is dimensioned to receivea plurality of circuit carriers, and wherein the manipulator has a rangeof movement in which there is at least one placing location for a dummyof the circuit carrier.
 21. The device for assembling electroniccircuits according to claim 16, wherein the heatable zone is a heatableplate.
 22. The device for assembling electronic circuits according toclaim 16, wherein the placing station is enclosed within a casing, andwherein the belt conveyor extends outwardly through an opening of thecasing.
 23. A device for assembling electronic circuits, comprising: aplacing station for placing circuit components on a circuit carrier heldat a placing location; a fixing station for fixing the circuitcomponents to the circuit carrier under heat; and a belt conveyor meansfor conveying the circuit carrier from the placing location to atake-over location of the fixing station, the fixing station having aheatable zone and a manipulator for lifting the circuit carrier off thetake-over location and placing it in the heatable zone, the beltconveyor means including a first belt conveyor extending between apickup location where the circuit carrier is placeable on the beltconveyor means and a hand-over location located upstream of the placinglocation, and a second belt conveyor extending from the hand-overlocation via the placing location to the take-over location.
 24. Thedevice for assembling electronic circuits according to claim 23, and anelevating table for lifting the circuit carrier off the belt conveyormeans at the placing location.
 25. The device for assembling electroniccircuits according to claim 24, wherein the elevating table isvertically linearly guided, and an actuator for raising and lowering theelevating table, the actuator being connected with a clearance to theelevating table.
 26. The device for assembling electronic circuitsaccording to claim 24, and an actuator for raising and lowering theelevating table, the actuator being driven by a pressurized fluid, and athrottle associated with the actuator in order to be transited by thepressurized fluid when lowering the elevating table.
 27. The device forassembling electronic circuits according to claim 26, and a freecross-section of the throttle being adjustable.
 28. The device forassembling electronic circuits according to claim 24, and adouble-acting actuator for raising and lowering the elevating table. 29.A method of assembling an electronic circuit on a circuit carrier,comprising the following cyclically repeated steps: a) placingcomponents on the circuit carrier at a placing location, andsubsequently conveying the circuit carrier equipped with circuitcomponents from the placing location to a hand-over location using onebelt conveyor; b) concurrently with step a), conveying an unequippedcircuit carrier between a pickup location and the hand-over locationusing another belt conveyor; c) handing over the unequipped circuitcarrier to the one belt conveyor and conveying it to the placinglocation; and d) taking over the equipped circuit carrier at thetake-over location and placing it in a heatable zone using amanipulator.
 30. The device for assembling electronic circuits accordingto claim 29, in that the handing over step of the unequipped circuitcarrier to the one belt conveyor is carried out after the taking overstep of the equipped circuit carrier is performed.